The Jewel Thief, everyone so often a documentary comes out that’s truly going to have the Internet talking. And here is one I think follows suit. Let’s jump into my review of the new film, The Jewel Thief.
What’s up, everybody? And welcome to MadHink today for another review. And today we’re going to be reviewing the new film, The Jewel Thief, which has released on Hulu, on July 13. So this film, The Jewel Thief, is the story of Gerald Blanchard, who is an international thief. But here’s what’s different about him.
Before I even talk about the documentary, this guy’s honestly very creative. I think his initial motives were kind of noble, to be honest. Definitely some relatable factors. This guy really didn’t come from anything. He was bullied and he just was trying to make a dollar and he just got obsessed with it.
And then it stopped becoming about the money and started becoming about the fame. And there’s a guy that was always overlooked and as I mentioned, bullied. And so this really satisfied all those absences in his life. But I mean, listen, this guy was smart, calculated, and yet one of the most accomplished criminals of all time, internationally, shall I say, and no one was harmed. Let’s just put that there.
And his mom, being a part of his documentary, also said he never stole from anybody he knew. But nonetheless, this guy, Gerald Blancher, is hilarious, which in fact makes his documentary hilarious, which I was not expecting. But this documentary, follows his story all the way from his young age, his young years of life as a thief all the way till current, because Gerald Blanchard is alive. So he’s a part of this. And what’s also really cool about this documentary is that you really do get a lot of the key players within his tenure in being the thief.
And I mean, you got the folks, you got cops, you got his mom, you got his dad, you got some of his other accomplishments. You got folks who knew him all giving their take on his different stories and his self, which is funny because there are parts of the story where he will recount it one way and then like a cop will recount it another way, which is just hilarious. And then they have reenactments of some of the things that’s happened. And like, truly, this stuff seems so unbelievable. If they didn’t have these people, I wouldn’t know what to think.
But in fact, these things really did happen, really putting some people’s livelihoods on the line, some people’s jobs, careers, safety, all sorts of different things. Talking about the story, it’s funny that folks will really step up to talk about the moments he embarrasses them because this guy is an escape artist beyond being a thief. I mean, so many different things for him. Being arrested, escaping a cop car, still in the cop car, hiding within the ducks inside of different buildings. I mean, he really did it all.
And, I mean, even going back from, like, his small days and just shoplifting in electronic stores and one day he cleared out an entire store at 16, like, the entire store. And going beyond that, finding love and the States, getting bigger, and getting involved with some international gangsters, it’s a lot of different things that go on in this story. And then even coming to Current, where he kind of talks about if he’s kind of change, if he’s out the games or kind of leaves you a little bit of mystery in terms of what he’s been up to since he’s done because he’s been in and out of jail. But has he learned since that he’s been kind of quiet for a while, but, like, the whole documentary shows that, well, he doesn’t like quiet? He wants to get that notoriety of being this guy.
And like, yes, the title is The Jewel Thief. He takes something that’s very prestigious. But he’s done a lot of other things that make this title not really fulfilling enough. Like, there’s a bunch of other things that he’s done besides this one jewel that you’ll see within the posters and whatnot. But I just think that having Blanchard a part of this documentary, his mom, cops, accomplices all these folks that really did make this story full circle.
It was just a good documentary. I think it’s about an hour and 40 minutes and you’re getting so many different things. And I think what I enjoyed the most is just how authentic it felt at times because you got the fact that he’s telling his story. He clearly has an ego, but then you have the other folks saying, like, well, this is kind of what really would happen. And I think it leaves the viewer’s neighbor to really put together our version of it’s always two sides to a story but truly are always three sides.
But nonetheless, you just don’t have him telling his story and making this overly exaggerated depiction of what’s happening. I mean, this guy was talking about he had the paparazzi when he was still in and out of I keep forgetting the name of it, not circus. Radio Shack. Radio Shack. And, yeah, the cops.
Like, there was definitely no paparazzi there at the age of 15 for things. And again, I mean, this story goes back to when he was 1516, all the way to 2012, and then all the way up into 2023, where now this documentary is out. And you’re kind of like, hey, yeah, just kind of chilling. He had another little incident at that point. And I think, like, the cliffhanger of, like, a notion at the end leaves you wondering, what is this guy up to?
But truly, truly, truly, from the things he’s doing in Winnipeg from the days he’s done overseas, this Blanchard guy is a character that’s what you take from this he is a character unlike anybody else. And I honestly think when it came down to documentaries such as The Tinder Swindler, who was clearly a character, he was malicious in what he did. This Blanchard guy, I am confident that the US government must want to employ him for his tactics, his antics, and his skills how this one guy was able to do so much? And while, yes, it was a life of crime, it was nothing that got anybody harmed. There was no one hurt in any of this stuff.
And I think that’s really the caveat to all of this is that like, yeah, he was still in, but it was never ever anything to have anybody hurt or harmed. But, yeah, you’re going to have to watch this one. This is a good one, folks. It’s on, Hulu. Check it out.
Thanks for reading the total review, I hope you got an overview of the documentary!
